From February 28

Hi Guys! Here was my crazy week!

February 20, 2012
Tonight we had a good lesson with a woman named N. A. I decided that teaching in English is great. I am glad I served in Spanish cuz it really helped me focus on the basics, but when I teach in English I am so much more literate and can say just what I want to say. I can use analogies and intonation. You don’t even think about how different it is in another language and you can take it for granted sometimes.

Just like our lesson yesterday, our lesson tonight really helped me to see how much my understanding of gospel principles has increased. The mission is awesome. It is like I take a little break (consumed by office work) and then when I am back in the swing of teaching it comes back stronger than before and stronger than ever. I am grateful.



February 21, 2012

Today was one of the best days I have had in a long time. I think for a while at the office I have felt swamped and overwhelmed and up to my ears in things to do and responsibilities. But, today felt different. Yes, I am still swamped and up to my ears and have an overwhelming work load to handle, but I felt totally in control of it today.

We have all of the exchange reports read and internalized (those are the reports that get filled out for every missionary in the mission after their District or Zone Leader goes on exchanges with them…just kinda tells us how they are doing and progressing, if there are any major issues with any of them etc.). I used to dread having to turn them in when I was a ZL in Metro, but I have really gained a love for reading them…all 110 of them haha. Thank goodness Elder M. takes the other 90ish. I couldn’t keep all 200 straight. You might ask why/how could I enjoy reading 100+ pages of evaluations. I guess it is because I have grown to love each and every one of these missionaries. I legitimately care about them and how they are doing and how they are progressing in their personal journeys to become more like the Savior. It is weird to think though…21 months ago if you would have told me that I would care for 200 missionaries, peers my own age…I woulda told you that I could maybe get along with most of them, but love them? That would have been a whole different story.

But, I have learned that to love someone means to serve them. To watch how they progress and commend them for it then try and help them to reach their full potential as a son or daughter of our Father in Heaven. Sometimes they don’t do what you wish they would, but every time that happens I remind myself that these are God’s elect, His chosen servants. These are people who, like me, have covenanted in the Holy Temple of God which is the most important thing there is to do in this life. If that is on the path they are on, then deep down they have good intentions and mean to do what is right. They are learning and growing (all of us are) step by step until our steps bring us all to the same judgement bar of God where we will be asked how well we looked out for each other on the journey.


I love being a missionary so much. I have learned a ton and I know that this is the best two years for my life, hands down.

Today we had a lesson with a woman on the 5-5-5 named Sister Z. S. She is a recent convert of about 2 years and has been coming to church on and off lately. We took Elder O. and went over there and taught her one of the most powerful restoration lessons that I have taught on my mission. The Spirit was there from word one and she was soaking it all in like a sponge. It was incredible to watch her countenance change from the time we arrived to when we left. When we got there, she seemed kinda down and overwhelmed, but after we taught straight up doctrine and let her know that God will always be her support, she was beaming from ear to ear and couldn’t say "thank you" enough for helping her move some furniture into her house after the lesson. Pretty cool to watch the Spirit work by such simple means.

After that we came back to the office and got to take a little looksie at the transfer board. Wow…it is a mess. I have never seen it so messy. So many people moved around, so many notes in the empty columns, so many question marks and scribbles and arrows…Needless to say, the storm is brewing and this one proves to be cuh-razy.

I do know though that I will be up here for at least one more. I am excited. We have some good stuff going in the area and I love my companion and I am just getting the hang of feeling like I know what to do. I am excited to tackle all the craziness that comes my way and see how much I can learn and grow from it.



February 22, 2012

Obedience makes life and the mission so much easier. Elder M. and I talked about it for a long time tonight. He is such a good companion. We have some really good talks about all kinds of things. Just looking back on life, I have had so many experiences where God has saved me from bad things happening -- whether physically or spiritually damaging. He has always looked out for me, and often times through other people acting and not even knowing the profound saving impact that they have on me and others. It is amazing…when God’s children follow His plan, the consequences affect others, but in a positive way.

Consequences and their ripple effect extend so far beyond our individual selves. It is a good thing I have the Gospel…I dunno what I would do without it.



February 23, 2012

We can’t afford to have moments of weakness. There is no room for defects in the armor of God. The adversary is real and he wants us to fail so badly that he will do whatever it takes to get us to fall.

I can’t imagine how wonderful it must have been to learn the Plan of Salvation at the feet of our Father in Heaven. Everyone in the pre-existence wanted to stay in the presence of God, but those who chose Satan’s plan did not want to have to rely on someone else to be able to make it back…they lacked humility. How many people today are unwilling to accept service and help from others in times of need? The idea of getting help and relying on each other is an idea that is central to God’s Plan because we can’t do it alone, right?



February 24, 2012

After going to District meetings, we got back to the mission office about 6 p.m. and worked on the board…finally…for the rest of the night. Finally got started! It went really well, too. We were able to nail down a huge chunk of the English and Korean sides of it and President broke out the peanut M&Ms faster than normal. We worked on it until about 10:25 after which he said we were going to let it sit and he was going to ponder it over until tomorrow. We came into our office at 10:30 to find that the Senior Missionaries had taken pity on us and brought us some plates of food from one of the activities in the Family history Library. God bless those senior couples, we hadn’t eaten anything but peanut M&Ms in 8 hours…It was our manna from heaven :)
　
February 25, 2012

Finally getting into transfers…getting close to being done actually…well…kinda. We still have a few of those last pieces to place, you know the hard ones. What is important is what we did to serve the Lord today.

After that, President was at a baptism, so we were in charge of our mini-mission. Arcadia Mission sent some sisters over here to be mini missionaries with the Visitor’s Center Sisters for about 6 hours. Can you say "Sister Saturday"? So that was our task after our weekly companionship study, to corral about 15 young women and 30 sister missionaries into the large theatre, welcome them, give a little explanation of how things would go and then assign them each to a companionship of sisters.

One thing I have learned though is that everyone has a complaint of some kind. That is how they use their agency, but it is still up to me to decide how I will use mine and react to it. There were some of the mini missionaries who wanted to be with certain people or wanted specific assignments, but what better way to learn what the mission field is like than to realize that those things are not up to you!? Haha Anyway, it was a good experience for all and I think the Young Women had a good time and learned from it.



February 26, 2012


Great Sunday. Sacrament Meeting was once again centered around missionary work and a few converts spoke about how they found the gospel. Then in Gospel Principles we learned about the Atonement which is always an awesome lesson. I obviously have heard about the Atonement before, but Brother W. said something profound...I think it was profound, it coulda just been that he pulled out a box if thin mint Girl Scout cookies as he was saying it which makes anything more epic.

He said that life is a test, but it is not like some obstacle course that the Lord wants to see us complete before we reach the end and our prize is the Celestial Kingdom. Life is a time to learn and grow, and if we do it right, then we have changed and morphed enough by the end of it to be able to stand before God and be seen as someone who is as much like Him as a mortal can be and that is when the Atonement takes over and does the rest and we are allowed into God's Presence. I really liked that...not an obstacle course, something to transform us into more God-like beings.





So, that was my week! Pretty wild, huh!? I am loving my mission more than ever and enjoy learning at every chance I get. President B. is such a great man; he is teaching me so much. Well, right now we get to go figure out how all this transfer will work. There are 14 trainers, 10 new senior companions, 11 new District Leaders and 8 new Zone Leaders. That is a ton! They are coming up to the office tomorrow for all of their trainings and stuff. Maybe I will snag some of those M&Ms! Pray for me.


I love you guys

Love, Elder Molinaro